The third scent in the Amortentia
by FrancesMalfoy
Summary: A Dramione story. Hogwarts sets itself back a year, due to the war, Hermione finds Draco's diary, in her bag, it is all about a woman whom he seems to think hates him. Hermione finds out it is about her, and wants to help him: he is a wreck after his father's imprisonment in Azkaban.
1. Going back to Hogwarts!

**Disclaimer****: I am not J.K Rowling, so I don't own Harry Potter, or any of the characters, potions, spells or anything from the world of Harry Potter. I wish with all my heart that I did own it; all of it, but I don't :(**

Chapter One

I saw her in Potions today and oh Merlin I lost control again. Her hair was flowing in that wonderfully natural way that it does and she was wearing that emerald studded silver hair clip, which I gave her for her birthday. She's so smart that I still can't believe that she hasn't figured out that I gave it to her. In a way I'm glad, because Merlin knows what she'd say if she knew. She'd probably hex me into oblivion and Merlin knows I don't need that right now. I was staring at her dainty, slender, clever fingers as she ran her index finger up and down the list of ingredients in her potions book, when she stopped and looked at me with her beautiful brown eyes, as if she had felt my gaze. I snapped at her, "Why are you looking at me?" and, oh Merlin, I called her a Mudblood. I feel awful, after the war, I mean I made a pledge to myself to drop my prejudices and I have, in fact I haven't really ever been prejudice. It's just something that my parents always expected of me, I never believed any of the things that I said to her, because, I've always loved her, ever since my first year at Hogwarts, I'm just terrible at showing it. Oh Merlin she looked so hurt as she turned back to her potions book. I'd bet my wand that she thinks I'm nothing more than a blast ended skrewt. I can't bare this anymore. I think I love her. Oh bloody hell, Blaise is coming. He can't see this. Goodnight.

It had been quite a shock to Harry, Ron and Hermione when, at the beginning of the summer, they had received their Hogwarts letters. Harry had been over the moon, when he received his letter, because he had been seriously wondering where on earth he was going to go, after summer at the Burrow, he was sure that the Dursley's wouldn't have him. He, Ron and Hermione had of course received huge amounts of gold for their efforts in the war, as did many others, but Harry didn't feel as though he was ready to be off in the world, earning money and living alone. So Harry was perhaps even more thrilled than Hermione, when the Hogwarts letter came.

Dear Mr Harry Potter,

Due to the war, last year, the lack of students, and the lack of a decent magical education to those who attended Hogwarts last year, the ministry of magic have decided to make all students repeat the previous year of education. Therefore, we are delighted to invite you to come back to complete your seventh year of magical education at Hogwarts' school of witchcraft and wizardry. You, of course, being a seventh year, do not have to return, as it is not compulsory, however we highly recommend that you do come, because we have some wonderful new courses for the sixth and seventh year students. Your booklist is attached.

Please send back your answers by owl by July 31st, as there are various Head boy/girl and prefect badges that need to be handed out.

Thank you

Headmistress McGonagall

Hermione had made up her reply within seconds of reading the letter and had already sent it off with the small screech owl that had delivered it, and she was halfway through a letter to her parents telling them the good news. Harry had been so stunned that he had just sat there for about ten minutes, letting the owl peck at his hand, he looked down at it and gave a start. It was a snowy owl, just like Hedwig, Harry stroked the owl and he began to well up, thinking about all the times that Hedwig had kept him company, while Harry had been at the Dursley's all those summers. He snapped himself out of that melancholy mood, he'd lost a lot of dear friends, because of Voldemort, and he was not about to start crying again here, in the middle of the Weasley's kitchen. He scribbled a quick reply saying, yes he would come back thank you, and tied it to the claw of the snowy owl, and he watched it soar out of the window to join its friend, on the journey back to Hogwarts.

"I'm so glad Harry! I thought that you'd need persuading, a bit more than that!" Hermione smiled. "Ron. You're coming back too, right?"

"Well, I suppose I'll have to. You haven't really given me much choice. Have you?"

Ron scribbled his reply, in much the same manner as Harry had, and, as his owl had gone off already, grabbed Pig, and tied his reply to him. Ginny came into the kitchen, in her night dress.

"Did you get your letters?" she addressed all three of them, but was looking at Harry.

"Yes. We did, Ginny, and you don't need to worry, all three of us have written to say that we'll go, so that means that you shan't be away from Harry." Hermione smirked. Ginny seemed to relax and sat on a chair next to Harry, at the breakfast table.

"I wonder who will go back, surely none of the Slytherins." Ron said.

"Well, thanks to Harry, several of the Slytherins are not in Azkaban. You know, Harry, it really was decent of you, to get them out of going to Azkaban. The ministry were practically eating out of your hands! Anything that you said, they did!" Hermione looked proudly at her friend.

"Well," Harry was blushing furiously, "most of them weren't much older than us. And I couldn't see them all soulless, for things that most of them were forced into doing, by Voldemort and their families. I hope Neville and Seamus come back."

"Yes and I wonder how Lavender is recovering, you know she was nearly killed by a werewolf. She's been in St. Mungo's since the war. They thought she was dead at first. Trelawney was in a right state apparently," Hermione said, no one noticed Ron's cheeks turn a little pink. "Parvarti owled me." Hermione finished solemnly, but she couldn't help smirking when Harry said, "Trelawney is always in a "Right state", she practically revels in traumatic experiences."

"I didn't bother with divination. I took a leaf out of Hermione's book, and avoided the old bat." She stuck her tongue out at Harry, who took the opportunity to give her a quick kiss on the cheek.

"Well, really, if that's the best you can do, after all I've done for you-" Ginny started.

"Woah, Ginny! Hermione and I really don't want to know!" Ron interrupted.

"Well then, feel free to leave." She gestured to the door, and Harry and Hermione laughed.

"Fine then. Be like that." He grabbed Hermione and kissed her roughly, on the mouth. To his horror, Hermione pulled back, and said "Ronald Billius Weasley. How dare you." Then she grinned and pulled him back to her, kissing him passionately on the lips.

"Let's get out of here before anything escalates!" Ginny whispered to Harry, with a wink, for they both knew that Hermione was very chaste and would never let anything 'escalate' until she was married. In spite of this, Harry vacated his seat and went upstairs with Ginny, to her room. Harry sat on Ginny's bed, being careful not to put his shoes anywhere near Hermione's camper bed, as he'd had trouble with her about that before. Ginny plonked herself down next to him, and nestled into his shoulder. He put his arm around her waist and they sat, in silence for several minutes, each enjoying the other's company. Ginny was first to break the silence.

"I miss Fred. I miss Sirius, Lupin, Dumbledore and everyone." Ginny spoke the thoughts Harry was thinking. He didn't know what to do, to comfort the woman he loved more than life itself. He took her face gently in her hands and pulled it close to his, kissing her lips softly. Their kiss grew more passionate and filled with love, by the second and soon they were sending each other the feelings of love and sorrow, which they couldn't simply describe with words. After expressing their emotions to each other, they drew apart and Ginny said, "Now that's what I'm talking about. What was that rubbish downstairs all about?!" Harry smiled and said, "I love you Ginny Weasley." Ginny nodded and said, "Harry Potter. I love you too. And now I need to get dressed." Harry conjured a blindfold and tied it over his eyes, as Ginny began dressing, after all he had morals! Ginny laughed and pulled on some jeans and a weird sister's t shirt. "Come on Harry, let's go and see what Hermione and Ron are up to." She lightly grazed Harry's lips and untied his blindfold, then she took his hand and pulled him up. They proceeded back into the kitchen only to find it empty.

"Ron! Where are you?" Harry called, grinning. "Hermione!?" Ginny spotted a piece of paper lying on the table and she let go of Harry's hand and walked over to it. "It's from Hermione." She said, picking it up. "She says, 'Harry. I've gone to my parents' house. Please come and see me. Love Hermione' and there's a big wet splodge on the ink." Harry looked baffled. "What do you think happened?! Shall we both go?" Suddenly, he heard a loud crack in the hallway! It was Mrs Weasley. "Have you seen Hermione?" She shouted, "Did you know? What Ron has been doing for the past month?!" She looked angrier than Harry had ever seen her! At Ginny and Harry's bewildered faces, Molly's face softened. "You'd best go and see Hermione, dears. It's all blown up very quickly in the hour or so you've been gone. Where were you two anyway?"

"We were only just upstairs!" Ginny said. "We should go and see Hermione, Harry." She took his hand and he disapparated taking her with him.

CRACK! Hermione looked up, her cheeks had streams of tears running down them, her eyes were red and puffy, and her hair was wet and matted. She felt like the world was ending, her heart was hurting beyond belief and her whole body ached, but she couldn't stop crying. Harry and Ginny were filled with sorrow, at the sight of their friend. "Hermione! What in the name of Merlin happened?" Ginny came over to Hermione's bed and hugged her friend. "Ron. Lavender. Letters." Hermione stuttered. Harry's green eyes narrowed as realisation dawned upon him. He grabbed Hermione and hugged her tight. "I understand Hermione." He whispered. Hermione was glad that she didn't have to explain anymore, because she didn't think that she could. She hugged Harry as tight as she could and let her tears fall on to his shoulder. Ginny looked, at them and she was puzzled. She apparated back to the Burrow and sought out her mother. "Mum, what is going on?" She said, when she found her mother, preparing lunch.

"Ah Ginny. Well Hermione and Ron were in Ron's room, clearing out the Doxies in his curtains, when Hermione knocked over a box, on Ron's cabinet. A good twenty letters fell out from Lavender Brown declaring her love for Ron, and thanking him for his letters and for his love. Well as you can see, Hermione was, quite rightly, very upset. She threw the box at Ron and left."

"Where is Ron now?" Ginny asked, Ron was not going to get away from this, if she had anything to do with it!

"He disapparated, once he could see that Hermione wasn't going to let him be with him anymore. And I've a good mind to keep him out. I know he's my own son, but really..." Ginny decided to leave, halfway through her mother's rant, because she really was desperate to find Ron. She apparated back to the Granger's and found Hermione feeling considerably better. She was no longer crying and she had her head on Harry's shoulder and she was telling him all about what had happened. Harry looked grateful to see Ginny and he said, "Hermione. I doubt, now that you two are not together, that Ron will still come to Hogwarts. Think about it. He didn't really seem like he wanted to come, did he? The only reason he was going, was because you and I are going. Now that you and I will not speak to him, until he can change his personality. I never would have thought this of Ron." Harry was stroking Hermione's hair, pulling it back off her face. Ginny sat on the bed, on the other side of Hermione and began stroking her friend's back.

"Whether Ron goes back or not will surely depend on whether Lavender does. So let's hope that that giggly bitch will still be too ill to return to Hogwarts."

"Ginny! That's a terrible thing to say!" Hermione scolded. "I shall write to Parvarti and ask her. Harry, can I borrow Hedw-" She stopped short and said, "Oh Harry, I'm so sorry, I forgot."

"Hermione. Don't be silly. She was just an owl. Pets die all the time, and quite frankly, you've got bigger problems than my dead owl. Let's go to Diagon Alley- Oh Hermione, shall we move into Grimmauld Place? I am quite certain that you don't want to stay at the Burrow."

"Harry! Are you sure? I know that you didn't want to have to go back there, but my parent's, they aren't even here. They're on holiday in Spain and they are still a bit annoyed with me about the memory charm."

"Hermione. Calm down. Of course! It will be great fun! Ginny are you up for it? You come of age soon enough."

"Yes. I will have to check with Mum first, because I'm still underage, but I'm sure that if you both promise her you'll take good care of me for the summer, then she'll let me come."

"Oh thank you Harry. You really are a great friend." Hermione hugged him.

"Oi, 'Mione. Watch it, that's my boyfriend." Ginny winked.

"Let's go to Diagon Alley first. I want a new owl and we need to get our school things, goodness, I haven't even got a decent quill." Harry remembered throwing out all of his school things. "Then we can move all of our things into Grimmauld place and there are plenty enough rooms for one each."

"Thank you two. I feel a whole lot better, let me just go and fix myself up, I look awful. Then we'll go." Hermione went to the bathroom and fixed her makeup, hair and straightened herself out. Then she returned to her bedroom, and said, "Shall we apparate there?" Both Harry and Ginny nodded, and Ginny grabbed hold of Harry's hand; she was still underage, and with a loud CRACK they disapparated. Hermione looked at the place where her two best friends had just been. She smiled wearily, and disapparated, composing herself before she did, as she did not want to be splinched.

Ginny smiled as Hermione appeared, and she grabbed hold of her hand and tugged her along to Gringotts bank.

"I doubt that the goblins will be too pleased to see us, 'Mione." Harry said.

"Well that can't be helped." Hermione grinned. "Anyway, they wanted rid of You-Know-Who just as much as we did. Merlin's beard! It looks just the same as it did before the dragon incident."

They entered the bank, and to Harry's surprise the goblins all looked at them with what he supposed were smiles. As they reached the front desk, the old goblin said, "Well, Harry Potter. You wish to make a withdrawal? Do you have the key?"

Harry handed it over, and the goblin said, "And Miss Hermione Granger?" He looked with interest at Hermione, and Hermione handed over her key. "And a Weasley?"

"Ginny Weasley." Said Ginny, not liking the tone that the goblin was using.

"You have no vault. Do you wish to buy one?" He asked, a nasty smile playing on his lips.

"No, she's with me." Harry said.

"Ah. You all wish to enter together?" The goblin asked, slightly shocked.

"Yes." Hermione answered.

The old goblin nodded and signalled to a wiry haired goblin, who led Harry, Ginny and Hermione into a cart.

After both Hermione and Harry had made withdrawals from Gringotts, and bought all of their compulsory school equipment and books, Harry had insisted that he buy Ginny's school things, they headed to Eeylops' Owl Emporium, where Ginny and Harry had another fight because Harry had tried to buy twin long eared owls, and Ginny had caught him, just as Harry was joining the queue. In the end Ginny had fallen madly in love with the owl, and had let Harry buy both of them, and had named hers Biffy, Harry named his Roddy. Hermione had found an adorable little screech owl, which she named Sadie, she spoke with a little giggle,

"Crookshanks, shan't be too pleased! I hadn't meant to buy an owl today. Having plenty of gold really does drive one into doing silly things. Harry, I don't know how you ever managed not to spend out your whole account in one afternoon!"

"Well, when I first came, I was with Hagrid, and he wouldn't be so foolish as to allow me to spend too much money. And after that, I never really had the time, or Mrs Weasley took out the money for me, and bought my things herself."

"Shall we have an ice cream at Florean Fortescue's?" Ginny asked. "And this time, it's on me." Ginny looked sternly at Harry.

"Okay, Ginny. Then let's get our things and talk to Mrs Weasley about going to Grimmauld Place. How are you, Hermione?"

"Better than I'd have thought, actually. I'm glad that I got out of it, before we were committed." Hermione said. She did look better, although still sad.

They each had a wonderful ice cream, and then apparated to Grimmauld place, to dump all of their shopping there.

"Who should talk to Mrs Weasley?" Harry asked, before they flooed to the Burrow.

"Hermione." Said Ginny, at once. "She loves Hermione, and at the moment feels extremely sorry for her."

"Fine. I'll talk to her." Hermione smiled, she was secretly very pleased that Ginny thought that Mrs Weasley liked her.

"Okay, Ginny you go first." Harry said, and Ginny stepped into the green flame, said "The Burrow!" and she was gone.

"I'll go next, if that's alright Harry. I don't really like being here alone."

"Mistress Hermione is not being alone." Said a familiar voice.

"Kreacher!" Harry exclaimed! "We are going to be living here again! I must say, I was wondering why it was so clean. You've really been doing a good job." Harry praised.

"Thank you master Harry." Kreacher beamed. "Kreacher was worried, when Master Harry, Mistress Hermione and Master Ron did not return. Kreacher knew that Master Harry was still living, but he thought that he was in big trouble, being tortured maybe, and then death eaters came, and Kreacher hid, they searched for something, and when they could not find something, they left, but one always stayed, until May 2nd, when they all left and never came back. Kreacher has been alone since today. Would Master Harry like Kreacher to make three hot meals, for when you returns?" Kreacher looked up at Harry, and Harry smiled at the elf, "Thank you Kreacher, that would be lovely. Right, come on Hermione."

Hermione stepped into the flame, shortly followed by Harry.

"What kept you?" Ginny asked, crossly.

"Kreacher." Hermione said, with a little smile. "See Harry, he's much nicer, now that you've learned to be respectful of him."

"Yes. And he's expecting three back for dinner, so let's hope all goes well with Mrs Weasley." Harry grinned. Right one cue, Mrs Weasley came in.

"Where _have _you been? Hermione dear, are you okay?" she immediately bombarded them with questions.

"We were in Diagon Alley, we got all of our school stuff." Ginny said merely.

"Yes, and Mrs Weasley, Harry and I are going to move into Grimmauld Place, for the rest of the summer. We were wondering if it would be okay if Ginny moved in with us too." Hermione smiled at Mrs Weasley.

"Well, I can hardly say no to you, dear, can I? Of course she can, but promise me that you'll look after her." Mrs Weasley smiled.

"Of course." Harry and Hermione chorused.

"Will you stay to tea?" Mrs Weasley looked at Harry.

"Well actually we just came from Grimmauld Place and Kreacher was very excited to see us, and he's cooking for us. He really is a nice elf, Hermione made us be decent to him, last year, when we hid there, and he grew very fond of us. So if it's alright with you, we'll just get our things and relieve you of the burden of our presence." Harry said, grinning at Mrs Weasley.

"Is Ron back yet?" Ginny asked.

"Yes, but you needn't worry, George is talking to him in the garden, I think that they'll be a while."

Mrs Weasley shooed the three of them upstairs and they gathered their things.

"It's strange." Hermione said to Ginny, as she levitated their Gryffindor scarves into a big trunk, they had decided to pack all their stuff together and then sort it out at Grimmauld Place. "I really don't feel too bad anymore. This morning, I thought that getting over Ron would take weeks, but I think that as long as I know that he's been despicable, I'll know that he isn't worth the tears."

"He _is_ despicable, Hermione. Thanks for packing by the way. Life will be so much easier when I can use magic. Not long now." Ginny grinned.

"Come let's go and see if Harry's ready." Hermione said. Ginny looked at her bushy haired friend, she admired her greatly. It had barely been a day, and yet Hermione had pulled herself together, she doubted that she would be half as happy as Hermione was at the moment, if Harry did to her what Ron did to Hermione.

Ginny's birthday came and Harry bought her a most beautiful necklace with a silver chain and a small silver heart with GW+HP engraved on it.

"Is it too much? The initials, I mean, because I can remove them." Harry said.

Ginny was close to tears. "No. It's beautiful. The most beautiful thing I've ever had." She flung her arms around his neck and kissed him.

"Happy Birthday! You can now use magic!" Hermione grinned at Ginny and handed her a present. To neither Harry nor Ginny's surprise, it was a book, _'100 things to do as an overage witch!' _

Ginny laughed! "Thank you, Hermione. I will definitely do most of these things." She flicked, merrily through the book.

Several owls came. One from the Weasley's asking them to come for a big roast dinner at the Burrow, one was from Luna, and it was a book on spotting the Crumple Horned Snorkack, one was from the Daily Prophet, and then there were three from Hogwarts!

One of the Hogwarts owls delivered a letter to Harry, as Harry read it he gasped.

"Merlin's beard! I've been made a prefect. Listen, '_Dear Harry', _blah blah blah, _'due to some changes, we have decided to appoint you as a prefect. Please find your badge enclosed!'_" Harry grinned. "I can't believe it! Wait. What about Ron? He was the prefect for our year in Gryffindor."

"Yes, well-" Hermione stopped mid-sentence.

"What is it, Hermione?" Asked Ginny, staring at Hermione, who was now holding up a purple badge.

"I've been made head girl!" Hermione's voice quivered with excitement.

"Well, to be honest Hermione, what were you expecting?" Harry asked, he had known ever since they first got their Hogwarts letters that Hermione would be made head girl.

"I must write to my parents! They know what a Head Girl is. They'll be so happy!" Hermione said. "I'll just go and get Sadie!" She left the room and Ginny grinned at Harry.

"I'm so pleased for her. That'll really take her mind off Ron." Harry smiled back at her, but he felt queasy.

"What does your Hogwarts letter say?"

"Oh, I haven't opened it yet. I expect it will just be term dates, etcetera."

She opened the letter roughly and a small red badge fell out.

"No!" Ginny exclaimed. "It can't be me! They've made a mistake, surely!"

She read the letter and saw that it was addressed to her. "Well, I'm flattered, but I'm sure I'll make a terrible prefect."

"You'll be brilliant." Harry smiled.

The rest of the summer went rather quickly, it was filled with Kreacher's cleaning and cooking, frequent visits to and from the Burrow, Ginny doing random things from the book that Hermione gave her, and a lot of laughter. Harry had changed his mind about Grimmauld place, and now he found it a place of laughter, love and happy memories. They had cast a silencing spell over the portrait of Mrs Black, so it was altogether a much nicer place. As Harry packed his trunk, for Hogwarts, he realised that this was the first time that he was leaving a home he actually liked, to go to school. Hermione, however, was buzzing with excitement, she had packed a week in advance, in attempt to speed up the time, and had spent the last week of the summer holidays reading her school books. Ginny and Harry had been out a lot, "sightseeing" but Hermione knew that they just wanted some alone time, and were acting as a young couple should. Hermione was missing Ron, but being the brave young Gryffindor she was, she acted as though she was completely over him in front of Harry and Ginny, but at night she wept, not for him, but for what he did. She wept because she had trusted him, she had thought that he would never, ever hurt her, but then he did, and with Lavender Brown, although Hermione doubted that Lavender would have known that Ron and Hermione were together, because Lavender did not seem like the type of person to settle for half of someone's heart. Two days before they were due to go back to Hogwarts, Hermione received a letter from Ron, which she hid from Ginny and Harry. It said that he was sorry for causing her pain, and that the only reason that he didn't break up with her before getting back together with Lavender, was because he wasn't quite sure whom to pick.

Dear Hermione,

I am so sorry, for causing you pain. I hope that you can understand that I never wanted to hurt you. I love you, Hermione and I think that if you hadn't broken it off, then I would have broken it off with Lavender. I should not have even written back to Lavender when she wrote to me from St. Mungo's, it's just that what Lav and I have, it's special and there is something attractive about our relationship and I just couldn't stay away from it. I guess that you deserve better than that, and I'm happy with Lavender. I miss you though, Hermione and I hope that you can forgive me, and I hope that we can go back to being best friends again. Maybe, if you forgive me soon, we could go back to how we were, more than friends, I mean, boyfriend and girlfriend.

Thank you, and I'm sorry,

Love Ronald Weasley

By the end of the letter, Hermione was crying, she wrote a quick reply back, which went as follows.

Ronald,

I do hope that one day we can go back to being best friends. I miss you too, but I can't go back to being more than that with you. Seamus was right, in May, when he said that we weren't suited to each other. I'm chalk, you're cheese. I always knew that us being together was too good to be true, it went too smoothly, we never argued and that was always strange, in my opinion, because when we were just friends, we were always at eachother's throats! Now I see why, because you felt guilty about also being with Lavender, you didn't want to annoy me because you felt you were already being disloyal. I love you too Ron, but I see now, as just a friend.

Love Hermione Granger

Hermione tied the letter to Sadie's foot and, tears spilling over her eyelids, she said "Take it to Ron. At the Burrow." The little owl gave a great screech and soared out of the open window. Hermione sat down on a silver and green armchair and closed her eyes. She hadn't meant to, but she fell asleep and she dreamt, she dreamt of the time in Potion's, with the Amortentia, the wonderful smell that had wafted up to her nose. At the time, she had thought it to be Ron's hair, but she was puzzled when she had, a few weeks later, bumped into Ron in the corridor and his hair smelled absolutely nothing like the smell that had come out of the Amortentia. Hermione dreamt of that smell often, but she had not yet found the source of it. She remembered it clearly, and wished she could find its source. She felt as though it was somebody's hair, she had been through numerous body and hair care shops in search of some sort of conditioner that resembled this smell, but had found nothing. When she dreamt of the smell, she was always in warm, cosy places, not alone, but not with anyone. She could feel a loving presence around her, like God. She assumed that she must be dreaming of Heaven and looked forward to the dreams. She always woke up feeling happy and refreshed, when she had those dreams.

Hermione slept all through the night, peacefully and happily, and when Ginny and Harry got back and found her in the armchair, they put a blanket over her and looked at their peaceful friend, with love and warmth. They smiled at eachother and left Hermione to dream of her Heaven.


	2. Mudbloods and diaries!

**Disclaimer: I still do not own anything Harry Potter, unfortunately.**

Harry and Ginny, who had both left all of their packing for the last minute, spent the last day shrinking their things to fit into their trunks.

"I'm not sure how I ever managed to fit everything in before!" Ginny exclaimed as the last ball of socks flew into her trunk.

"Well, you have more books in OWL year, and more potions equipment." Harry reasoned.

"Ugh. I can't believe I have to redo my OWLs!" Ginny groaned.

"Well, you didn't really do them last year, did you?" Came a voice from the hallway. It was Hermione, she was smiling, and standing with her hands on her hips.

"Hey! You slept well last night?" Harry smirked.

"Yes. Thank you, for the blanket." Hermione smiled gratefully at her two friends. "Well I only came to say that Kreacher has made a roast chicken dinner, as a goodbye. It's ready now, if you'd like to come down."

"Great. Kreacher's gotten really good at cooking the muggle way, you'd never think that he was owned by an extremely anti muggle family." Harry said. "Hermione, you really were on to something with spew."

Hermione rolled her eyes and said, "It's S.P.E.W! Not spew!" But she was beaming, proudly.

"Harry! Hermione! Ginny! Over here!" Neville looked like he was going to burst with excitement. He was holding hands with a dreamy looking girl, with wavy blonde hair, and a yellowing horn on a necklace around from her neck. They were standing on platform nine and three quarters next to the Hogwarts Express

"Hello Ginny, hello Harry. Quibbler?" Luna smiled at them, and pulled a stack of Quibblers out of her strange shoulder bag.

"Yes please." Said Ginny rummaging in her pocket, for a Knut. "Where's Ron?" Luna asked, looking around. "I hope you haven't forgotten him. There does seem to be an awful lot of wrackspurts in your head, Harry!" She pulled off her ridiculous glasses and held out her hand for Ginny's Knut. She gave Ginny her Quibbler and, ignoring Ginny, Harry and Hermione's sheepish faces, she said "Come on Neville, let's go and find a compartment."

"Bye Harry." Neville waved to the three of them, and boarded the train with Luna.

"Well, we'd better get on the train. Before it leaves without us." Harry said.

They boarded the train and found an empty compartment. As the train left Hermione said "Did anyone see Ron or Lavender?"

"No, he hasn't even owled us. You'd think that he'd want to apologise, or talk to us, I mean we are supposed to be his friends, and Ginny: you're his sister!" Harry looked at Hermione who was looking at her feet, sheepishly. "Hermione?" Hermione's face flew upwards and she looked into Harry's eyes. "Did Ron write to you?" He asked her, quietly.

"Yes. He did. Once." She rummaged in her handbag and pulled out the letter. "Here, have a look. It's nothing much."

Harry took the letter from her and Ginny moved closer to him, so that she was able to read the letter. After the pair of them had finished reading it, Ginny said,

"Well he's more of an idiot than I thought he was. Do you want to keep it?"

Hermione shook her head. "No. I want to forget it. I want to start this year on a fresh page."

"Wait, hang on. Aren't we supposed to be in the prefects carriage?" Ginny remembered.

"Damn it." Harry said, "I forgot! And Hermione, you're head girl!"

Hermione stood up so fast, that she got a head rush. They went to the prefects carriage, where they found only a tall, beautiful blonde young lady, and Draco Malfoy. The blonde woman smiled as the three came in, "Well hello! You must be Harry, Hermione and Ginny. The other prefects were dismissed a while ago. You're very late. I am Professor Greene. The new potions teacher, and I'm sure you all know Draco." She gestured at Draco, who was standing next to her, his shoulders slumped forward and he was staring at the floor. His usually gelled back hair was untidy, which made him look slightly younger, usually his expression was smug, but now he looked like a small boy who had just received a scolding.

"Hello, Draco." Hermione smiled, she was performing a little experiment. Draco looked up, surprised, and he said,

"Good morning, Hermione." His cheeks reddened and he looked back down at the floor.

"Well, anyway, thank you for turning up, eventually." Professor Greene smiled. "Harry and Ginny. You may leave now, so long as you just patrol the train at random intervals! Hermione, I will need to debrief you on your Head Girl duties!" Ginny and Harry thanked Professor Greene and departed.

"Draco, Hermione. Please sit." Greene gestured to a bench on the side of the carriage and both Draco and Hermione sat down.

"You are the head boy and girl, this year, if that wasn't obvious." She smiled. "Okay, I don't want to make this boring, and I have to go into Hogsmeade in a while, so I will be quick!" She perched herself on the wooden table at the front of the carriage. "Well, as head boy and girl, you will not be staying in your house dormitories, Professor Hagrid will show you the way, after the start of term feast. Lovely man, Hagrid, lovely man." Greene gave her smile again. The smirk returned to Draco's face, just for a second though, and then it faded. "You will have a common room between you, and you will each have your own bedroom and bathroom. You do not have a curfew, because you were chosen for this position because McGonnagal finds you both responsible enough. There is a schedule in your common room of all your duties. You are to go to the Headmistresses office before the feast. Right I think that that's it! I understand that you were both in different houses?" At their nods she continued. "Good, well, I'm going to apparate into Hogsmeade now! I want you two to stay here and get to know eachother a little better. Okay?" Both heads nodded, and Professor Greene smiled, and disapparated. A thirty second silence followed and Draco was first to break it.

"So, Granger, I'm sorry for what my aunt-"

"Don't be. There was nothing that you could have done. You saved Harry, Ron and me." She looked at him, trying to make eye contact, but he was looking at the floor.

"Thank you for that, Draco." Draco looked up at her and saw that she was smiling. His insides seemed to melt and he wanted to hold her, why was it worse this year? He knew that she was with Ron, and that was why it was worse. Then he remembered something, and before he could stop himself, his curiosity got the better of him.

"Why were you not with Ron? He was here earlier but you were late!" Hermione looked at him, and he felt that he'd gone too far. "Sorry, being nosy." He said, and looked back down at his feet.

"Well, seeing as we are going to spend a lot of time together, and Greene has asked us to get to know eachother, I might as well tell you. Ron and Lavender got back together over the summer, while we were still together." Now it was her turn to look at the floor.

"What an idiot. How selfish is that git!? Why would he-" Draco stopped mid-rant because Hermione was giving him a puzzled look. "I mean, are you okay?"

"Yes, thank you. I mean, obviously I was sad at first, but the war got us all more adapt to missing people who were close to us. I'm also grateful that it happened sooner rather than later."

"I'm glad too, for you I mean. So your summer was bad too then?"

"Yeah, I stayed with Ginny and Harry in London, which was okay, but I guess I felt a bit excluded-" she broke off and laughed.

"Are you okay?" Draco looked at the laughing female.

"Yes, it's just funny I suppose. Here I am spilling my heart out to you, and last year, by now you would have called me a Mudblood at least three times!"

"Well, I've learnt that being a racist prat doesn't do one any good. Look what happened to my father."

"I'm sorry, so is Harry, he tried really."

"Oh I'm glad of it. Not about the dementor's kiss, but my father was never exactly nice to mother and I. I am thankful to Potter for getting me and my mother out of Azkaban." He looked down at the floor again.

"Do you think we could leave now?" Hermione said. "Which compartment are you in?"

"Yes, well I don't think that Greene could do much about it, if we left. I came straight here, unlike some, so I don't have a compartment. I think I'll just stay here." Draco stood up and went over to his trunk and rucksack. "See you at Hogwarts." He said.

"Yeah. See you." Hermione left the carriage and made her way back to her compartment. Draco thought about the scene that had just happened, he replayed it in his head. Maybe there was a chance this year, maybe he could finally confide his feelings to her. Maybe she would return them. Okay, he thought, time to stop dreaming. She is better than you; far better, she deserves better.

Ginny and Harry looked up from Ginny's Quibbler, as Hermione slid open the door and walked in.

"Malfoy? Malfoy is head boy? What was McGonnagal thinking?" Harry ranted, as Hermione told them what Greene had said.

"Actually, he's changed a lot Harry. We really should give him a chance. Greene left us, and made us 'get to know eachother' and we talked as though we were friends. I told him about Ron and everything."

"You told Malfoy? About Ron?!" Harry looked at Hermione like she was crazy.

"Well, Harry we are going to have a common room together! I may as well make the best of it. Don't forget, he saved you last year." Hermione was fair, she always was.

"Yes, that's true Harry. I can't believe that he's been made head boy though!" Ginny said, "I wonder why McGonnagal did that. Maybe she thought that he'd have some authority, so people wouldn't treat him like dirt because of his father."

"Maybe, she just thought that he needs to feel appreciated. Showing him that she had faith in him, after all what's happening to his father, he'd be pretty ashamed. He'd need some confidence." Harry said, but he wasn't sure that making Draco head boy was such a great idea. Hermione decided not to tell Harry and Ginny what Draco had said to her about his father. She was still in shock over how friendly they had been with eachother, and how easy it was to talk to Draco. While Ginny and Harry talked, Hermione was thinking about Draco's reaction to the news about her and Ron. It's strange, she thought, how outraged he had been at Ron's disloyalty, it was as if he cared about her. Wait, this was Draco MALFOY she was thinking about. Draco whom she punched in the face in their third year! Draco whom she, Harry and Ron had always despised. She had seemed to have forgotten this when she was in the prefects' carriage, but she had found him so easy to talk to, that it was as if she was talking to Harry or Ron.

'Firs' years! Firs' years. All of the new bunch and the ol' bunch! Over 'ere." Hagrid's voice boomed out over the noise and excitement. Harry grinned as he saw Hagrid haul a scared looking first year into a boat. They made their way to the carriages pulled by thestrals, this year, though, nearly everyone could see them, there was much gasping and many exclaims of delight, as the thestrals pulled along the carriages. Harry, Hermione and Ginny passed Blaise Zabini and Draco Malfoy, as they left Hogsmeade station. Draco gave a curt nod to Hermione, which she returned, however this little exchange was missed by their friends, and Hermione quickly pulled herself up into the carriage and sat down next to Ginny.

"It looks like Goyle is not returning. Nor Pansy." Ginny commented.

"I haven't seen any sign of Lavender or Ron yet, either." Harry said, but Hermione could tell that he was lying, she knew that he just wanted to give her a little longer with the hope that maybe Ron wasn't going to come back to Hogwarts, but Hermione knew Ron was definitely returning to Hogwarts, from what Draco said. She smiled, weakly at Harry and took the Quibbler that Ginny was offering her.

"I have to go and see McGonnagal, I'm probably going to miss the sorting. Have fun." Hermione split from Harry and Ginny and walked up to McGonagall's office. When she saw Draco standing outside, she remembered that professor Greene hadn't given them a password. As she approached the tall blonde boy, she became much more nervous, yet she seemed to relax. It was a strange sensation, she didn't quite know how to act around Draco, because up until tonight they had been enemies. She was glad that she had earlier performed her little experiment, because in saying "Hello, Draco." In such a friendly manner, she had shown him that she was open to forgetting all their past enmity and he had responded well, with his "Good morning Hermione." Hermione had thought his reddening cheeks slightly odd because she had never seen his face anything but a pale white.

"Erm do you have the password? Granger." He asked, using her last name, but not sounding too unfriendly.

"No. Greene must have forgotten to give it to us. Malfoy." She smiled at him as she said his last name, to show that she didn't think of him as an enemy, but she wasn't sure just what she regarded him as, for she was confused. "Shall we have a guess? With Dumbledore, it was always names of sweets." Draco looked down at the floor, something that, Hermione noticed, he was doing a lot, for someone who was normally high and mighty. She started guessing random words,

"Transfiguration. Dumbledore. Pumpkin juice. Hogwarts. Rowena." She was about to guess Mother of Pearl, when the gargoyle stepped aside.

"Rowena? That's not even her house? She's a Gryffindor!" Draco scoffed.

Hermione shrugged and walked up to the Headmistresses office, followed by Draco they were greeted by a stern looking McGonnagal, who's lips were in such a thin line, that they might as well have not been there. Her arms were folded and she stood tall, her pointed hat giving her a very superior aura.

"And who gave you the password?" She looked at the pair of them, menacingly, and Hermione's cheeks went pink. She was about to open her mouth to explain, when someone cut in.

"I guessed it, Professor. I thought that Professor Greene must have forgotten to give it to us." Draco said, smoothly.

"Ah, well Mr Malfoy, kindly please do not guess at my password without permission again, unless it is urgent. I was just going to come and let you in, but it seems that you have done so yourself. Well, I must crack on, I am sure that you will not want to miss the excellent start of term feast and I have a speech to give. As Professor Greene will have explained, you shall be sharing a Head student's common room, but you shall each have your own bedroom and bathroom. In terms of the password for entry, it is Trigonometry-"

"Trigo-what?" Draco looked puzzled, Hermione let out a small snort.

"Trigonometry. You may not give out your password to anybody, but you may have guests over if you wish, you will be able to let them in. You will be shown to your quarters, immediately after the feast, by Hagrid." McGonagall smiled at them, for the first time since they had got there. "You have a duty of responsibility, as head students, I expect you to live up to it. You may leave now, the pair of you."

"Thank you Headmistress," They muttered, as they left the room.

"Erm, thanks for that." Hermione said awkwardly, when they had got out of the Headmistress's office.

"It's fine. It was partly my fault anyway."

"No. It was Greene's fault. She could have told us that we were going to be let in." Hermione said.

"Are you taking potions this year?" Draco asked.

"Yes. Are you?"

"Of course, it's my best subject."

"Well Snape isn't here anymore, so there's no one to treat you like you are ten times better than me." Hermione teased.

"Shut it, Granger. Don't forget, you were late to the Prefect's carriage earlier, I think that Greene might like me better than you anyway, and I'm easily more charming than any of the other guys in our class."

"Well then I really don't want to see them." Hermione grinned.

"Thanks, Granger, here I am trying to be nice to you, and you go and say something hurtful."

"Sorry, if I hurt your feelings, I was being forward, poking fun at you, when we aren't even good friends yet." Hermione said, sincerely. Draco felt a warm glow, when she said yet, it implied that she thought that they were going to be good friends.

"After all those times I called you Mudblood." Hermione flinched. "I think I deserve a bit of teasing."

"Is Draco Malfoy apologising to me, Hermione Granger, the biggest Mudblood in the world?"

"I think he is." Draco smiled. They were nearing the hall, so Hermione said.

"See you after the feast."

"Yeah. See you," Draco muttered, and made his way to the Slytherin table, whilst Hermione made her way to the Gryffindor table. As Draco sat down, every person on the table went quiet, even his so called friend, Blaise. They had missed the sorting, so there were several Slytherin newbies, but even they went quiet. Draco ignored the silence, but his pale cheeks had coloured slightly. He began to fill his plate with food, but he felt many pairs of eyes upon him, he was thankful that he wouldn't have to sleep in the Slytherin dungeons or do his work in the Slytherin common room. He ate quickly and left the Great Hall, he went to the bathroom and hid there for a while. He did not know what to do, if even Zabini was ignoring him, after acting perfectly good friends with him on the way to Hogwarts, then what on earth was he going to do? He felt like an outsider, for perhaps the first time in his life. He had known that some Slytherins would have a problem with him because once word spread among the Death Eater families that he had saved Harry Potter's life, then of course several Slytherin students would be angry with him for the fall of their parents and their friends, but he had not thought that it would be this bad. Even Pansy Parkinson had looked threateningly at him and she was normally throwing herself at him, much to his disgust. When he heard the movement of people in the corridors and shouts of excited students, he left his hiding place and returned to the Great Hall, where he found Hermione and Hagrid, waiting for him. He had never particularly liked Hagrid, or the enormous beasts that Hagrid loved so dearly, and he knew that Hagrid definitely did not like him.

"There yer are, Malfoy. You bin keepin' us waiting, you have." Hagrid's voice boomed out across the empty hall. "Ready, Hermione?" Hermione nodded, and Hagrid led them out of the hall, around a few corridors, up some of the moving staircases, around a few turns and towards a massive portrait of a beautiful woman, with long brown curly locks, floating weightlessly over her shoulders. She wore a deep purple gown and she was smiling at them as they approached.

"Hello Hagrid! Are these the new head students?" Her voice was clear and melodious.

"Yeah. How are we today, Wilhelmina?" Hagrid asked the lady.

"Oh, the normal. I'm a bit lonely. I might pop out to see Helga later." She said, merrily.

"Oh no. It seems I've forgotten the password." Hagrid groaned. "Do you two have it?"

"Yes, Hagrid. It's trigonometry!" Hermione answered.

"Oh yes. Stupid muggle words get me confus' yeh know." Hagrid mumbled. "Anyway, I'll be seein' yeh. G'Night" And with that he walked back down the corridor and turned a corner so that he was out of sight.

"Well." Came an impatient voice. "Are you going to come in or not?" It was the lady in the portrait, only she wasn't there any longer. Her portrait had swung open to reveal a short passageway, into a room with a warm and inviting glow. Hermione climbed through and walked through the passageway and Draco followed.

Hermione looked around the large common room, there was a large comfy looking black leather sofa and two matching armchairs, all set around a wooden coffee table. There was also a very modern television set on a stand. Hermione grinned and looked at Draco, who was staring, puzzled, at the telly.

"What is that?" He asked her.

She smiled and said, "It's a television. You can watch programmes on it. It's a muggle invention! This means that I can watch Top Gear!"

"What's Top Gear?" Draco asked her.

"It's a show all about cars. I will show it to you some day, Malfoy." She said, softly.

"Well I know what cars are, at least, we wizards use them too." He said.

Hermione smiled and walked up the staircase at the back of the cosy room. There were two open doors, which were the bedrooms. She peered into one of the rooms and saw that the room was painted white, there was a large bed and a great big oak wardrobe, along with a book case, a bedside table, with a lamp, a desk and a chair and a deep blue carpet. There was a wooden door on the other side of the room, which she supposed was the bathroom. There was also a large trunk, which was not hers, so she realised that this was Draco's room. She looked at him and saw him sitting on one of the arm chairs with his eyes shut, though he was not asleep. She peered into the next room and saw that it was almost identical, apart from the walls, they were painted white with a purple tint. She saw that her trunk was next to her bed, and saw the door that led to the bathroom. She decided that she wanted to have a bath, she had not thought much of the bathroom at Grimmauld Place, it was quite old and rusty, quite frankly it could do with a few good spells, but it was up to Harry really.

Draco opened his eyes and scanned the room, searching for portraits and he was pleased to find that there were none. Portraits were a source of silly gossip and ridiculous rumours, when Draco, was a great fan of privacy, which meant that he had never much liked the portraits and their whispery ways. Draco glanced up at the wide, marble staircase and saw that Hermione had gone into her room. Draco pulled himself to his feet and walked slowly up the stairs, he felt like a king in a cosy palace. The Slytherin dungeons had always been cold and dark, much like the manor, where he lived. Up until now, Draco had not realised how much nicer it was to be in a warm, comfortable environment, he was glad that he would not have to return to the Slytherin dungeons, and he was hoping that he would not have to have lessons with them. He walked into the room with the open door and immediately saw his bags on the floor, he looked around the room, and noted that it was nice, simple, large and comfortable. He started examining the books on the shelf and was astonished to find that they were not school books, but books for pleasure reading. He picked up a random one, it was entitled _'How not to kill a housewitch!' _From the blurb, he gathered that it was about an idiot of a wizard, who was trying to kill off his wife and kept making a mess of it; not doing it properly. He was just examining _'Using my sister's wand' _which was about a woman called Allegra whose sister had a terrible case of spattergroit, leaving Allegra, a young single witch, to deal with all four of her ill sister's tiresome children, when he heard a yelp from the room opposite his own. Cautiously, he strolled out of his room and on to the landing.

"Granger? Are you alright?" He called to Hermione.

"Yes. Sorry! The bathroom is just enormous! Come and have a look." Hermione called back. Draco opened Hermione's bedroom door and walked through it, noting how similar to his own it was, apart from the paint obviously.

Hermione was standing in an enormous room, with what seemed to be a small, empty swimming pool. There was a very elaborately decorated pillar in the nearest corner, to the door, of the "bath" and it had about forty taps on it, each of them bending out, in a different direction. Hermione had never seen a swimming pool so beautiful, let alone a bath!

"Have you ever seen a bathroom so big?" She asked Draco, who had entered the room.

"Yes. The one at my house is bigger than this." He said, without thinking. Hermione stared at him, her eyes wide with shock. Draco went pink again, and stared at the ground.

"I'll just, go." He said quietly.

"Yes, goodnight." Hermione said in a voice which rivalled his quietness.

"Goodnight, Granger." Draco said, as he left the room. Hermione shut the door, slowly, and ran herself a bath. There were pink bubbles, blue bubbles, red bubbles, white bubbles and bubbles that were bigger than quaffles, the water was warm and relaxing. Hermione had a wonderful time in the bath, and spent a good hour in there, she swam and splashed and soaked herself, marvelling at the sheer size of the so called bath. After she had washed her hair, she clambered out and pushed a button labelled 'Empty', when she saw that the bath was emptying, she towel dried her hair and got into her pyjamas. She snuggled up in bed, with _'Using my sister's wand'_, but after a few chapters, she had fallen asleep, and was back in that potions class, with the Amortentia.

The next morning, when Hermione woke for her duties, she found that she woke in an extremely happy mood and, although she did not remember it, she knew that she had been dreaming of the glorious smell once again. As she patrolled the corridors, she bumped into Draco three times. The first time, he said good morning to her, and she said it back to him. The second time, he went pink and continued walking, but on the third time, he did something stupid, which he regretted doing for a long time after that. She smiled at him, and he did, what in his mind he thought was best for her. He called her a Mudblood. Her smile was wiped off her face immediately and she stuck her chin up in the air and walked on. She was not going to let Malfoy ruin her last year at Hogwarts, she was not even going to let him ruin her day. She tried to show him that she didn't care, by walking off in a dignified fashion, but he saw the hurt in her eyes, he'd seen it before, each time he'd called her that. He walked, sulkily back to his room, deciding to skip breakfast, in order to avoid the Slytherins, and contented himself with a chocolate frog. Lessons were dull that day, he had spent the whole day feeling sorry for himself, as he was continually hexed in the corridors, once by Ginny, which made him realise that Hermione had told her about his unkindness in the morning. At lunchtime he had gone down to the kitchens, where the house elves gladly provided him with lunch. However at dinner time, he felt that he ought to show up in the Great Hall, otherwise McGonnagal and the professors might notice he hadn't been to meals all day. Draco sat at the end of the Slytherin table and began to eat. He sat alone, but felt the cold stares thrown at him from all directions, half the people because they thought that he was bad, and the other half because they thought that he was good. Draco left quickly, and went to check on the portraits in a little hallway in one of the upper floors. This little hallway, was always empty, because hardly anyone knew about it, however the portraits in this hallway, were always squabbling! They never stopped, which was probably why students stopped coming there. Draco had often visited this hallway in previous years for three reasons, the first was simple, to escape Pansy Parkinson. The second reason was because people ignored him here, they were either sleeping, or too preoccupied with their own squabbles, and Draco had always liked privacy and peace. The last reason was because he kept a diary. He got a new book to write in every single year, this year he had bought his diary at a wizard's equivalent to a jumble sale. He wrote in his diary frequently, yet not every day, just when he felt like it, or had some free time. Now, he pulled his new red, diary out of his bag, and began to leaf through its yellowish pages. He sat down with his back up against one of the walls, listening to the quarrel going on between Sir Edward and Dame Alma, and began to write. He wrote about the war, and his disastrous return to Hogwarts. He wrote down all his thoughts and feelings in his beautiful, elegant writing, making sure to write everything correctly. His diary was, at the moment, the closest thing that he had to a friend, and he was going to make sure that it was generously rewarded for its friendship. He planned to spend all his free time here, in this corridor, either writing in his diary, or doing his homework. Although nobody at Hogwarts liked him, Draco preferred it to the Manor. At Malfoy Manor, it was cold and dark, besides he couldn't go back there to face his mother, who wanted him to be exactly like his father, whom she still loved, even though Lucius was a cruel man who had been twisted completely by Lord Voldemort. His mother knew that Lucius had badly abused Draco as a child, and Draco knew that his father abused his mother. How could he not know? He heard the screams and the whimpers that his mother let out, as the tall, evil monster of a man hurt his mother, yet she still loved him. Draco resented how loyal and kind his mother was, he never told anyone this. He kept it all in his diaries. They were the only place where everything was safe and, without them, he would be alone, lost in a world of people who hated him.


	3. More Mudbloods and Finding a Diary!

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters, spells, phrases or anything. I own diddly squat. **

_**Author's note: Sorry it's been so long! Thank you to all those whom have read this story so far! I hope you like this chapter. Thank you xxx**_

* * *

Chapter Three

Three months passed and Hermione had not spoken to nor approached Draco since the time he called her a Mudblood, in the corridor. He had only called her Mudblood once since then and that was in their first potions lesson, when she had caught him staring at her. Professor Greene had mesmerised the whole class. She spoke with an enchanting voice and her fingers moved craftily about any and all tasks she performed. When she flicked her wand, she did so with elegance and grace. Her skill with which she made potions was as great as Severus Snape himself, she plucked various ingredients from thin air with her crafty, slender fingers, using silent, wandless spells. She was a good teacher, because she explained everything clearly, but although she was not harsh or unfair, she was strict, especially towards Ron. Ron had approached Hermione and apologised with such sincerity that Hermione began to feel sorry for _him! _Hermione had forgiven him and Harry followed her example and, once Ron had settled back into the group, Harry and Hermione began to feel complete again. It had felt as though a part of them was missing and although they both loved Ginny (obviously in different ways) she was no compensation for Ron. Ginny had not completely forgiven Ron, she knew him too well. Ginny knew that Ron and Lavender would break up within the year, she thought that Harry and Hermione must be deluded to not be able to see that, because it was obvious. Ron was always either complaining about how clingy Lavender was, or he was snogging her and neither of these were part of the foundations for a good, meaningful relationship. Ginny could tell that Hermione was still feeling the hurt which Ron had caused her, by the sorrowful looks Hermione sometimes had when she looked at him. Hermione, however, was very pleased that she and Ron were friends again and, although she knew deep down that she was still upset about how their relationship ended, she was relieved that it had. She couldn't explain why, but she knew that she was relieved.

Hermione was, of course, excelling in all of her subjects, coming top of the class in every lesson, including potions. She had been approached by Professor McGonnagal one dreary Saturday afternoon and asked if she would tutor a new first year called Hadria Quinn-Scott. When she had asked in which subjects, she was met with a very grim reply, "Whichever subjects you think she most needs extra help with. Miss Quinn-Scott is not the brightest young witch."

Hermione had agreed to tutor the young girl, and had been simply astonished to find exactly how ridiculous Hadria Quinn-Scott was. It was not that Hadria was stupid, or even unintelligent. In fact, her knowledge and understanding was amazing, she was almost as good as Hermione on theory, however when it came to applying that knowledge to actually doing magic, Hadria was quite simply hopeless. Hadria Quinn-Scott was a very popular Gryffindor pureblood, distantly related to the Weasleys. She had friends in every house, including Slytherin but she did not get along with any of them nearly as well as she did with Hermione. Hadria hung on Hermione's every word, during their lessons and she was improving greatly. Hermione was a natural born teacher. She not only understood the lessons she taught, but she was able to impart her knowledge and skills upon Hadria, which meant that Hadria was not failing in all her classes anymore. Every time Hadria learnt a new spell in transfiguration or in charms, Hermione would have to go over it with her, to make sure that Hadria was able to perform it in the correct manner. Hermione had been allowed to use the transfiguration classroom as a tutoring room, by their new transfiguration teacher, Professor Richard Hogarth.

Professor Hogarth was extremely fond of Hermione and after McGonagall had told him that Hermione was going to tutor Hadria, he had very enthusiastically bounded up to Hermione, after a transfiguration lesson and offered his classroom as a base for their lessons.

"Miss Granger!" He had called to her after the lesson. "The Headmistress told me that you're giving Miss Quinn-Scott some extra lessons and I wondered whether you would like to use this classroom, whenever you need to."

"Oh, Professor, thank you." Hermione was tingling all over, Professor Hogarth was very tall, handsome and young, and he had been a Ravenclaw in Oliver Wood's year at Hogwarts. He was also very sparing when giving out house points and he rarely took them away, but he gave out detentions like confetti. Hermione always shone, whenever he gave her praise, which was, seeing as it was Hermione, very often.

"No problem at all! I think it's very good of you to give Miss Quinn-Scott some extra help, not meaning to be rude, but, from what I've seen of her, she needs it."

"Well, thank you Sir, but I really must be off, I'm late for Potions." Hermione said awkwardly.

"Yes, yes of course. If you ever need any help, you may come to me." The blue eyed, steadily built quidditch player grinned, showing a wonderful set of pearly white teeth and as Hermione walked out of the room, he coughed and sat down at his desk, ready to prepare for his next lessons.

For the first few lessons, Hermione had spent the first ten minutes getting to know Hadria and had found her to be a pureblood version of herself as a first year. Hadria had clearly read all her school books over and over, because she had a wonderfully deep knowledge of everything to do with basic magic. Hermione found her to be lovely and enthusiastic and she helped Hadria tremendously, by showing her to allow the magic to flow around her blood and through the wand. After a month of lessons, Hermione and Hadria became very firm friends and they met almost every day for extra lessons sometimes in the transfiguration classroom and sometimes in Hermione's room, but as Hadria was becoming better at her spells, they did not always work solidly. Sometimes they watched television for a bit, which puzzled Hadria for two reasons, firstly she had never seen a television, having been brought up in an all magic environment and, secondly, she was confused as to how the Muggle Technology worked inside Hogwarts with all of the spells and magic! Hermione herself had been curious about that, so of course she had asked McGonnagal who had told her that she had cast a spell upon the castle, after the war, which would make sure that Muggle technology would not be messed up by all of the magic, so as to allow certain privileges to members of staff and the two head students.

When the time came for the Christmas holidays, Hermione asked Hadria if she was going to go home for Christmas.

"No. I can't. My parents are off skiing, a Muggle sport, which they discovered last year! Skiing really isn't my thing. I don't enjoy the cold!"

"That's a coincidence! My parents are off skiing too and I don't particularly like it. They wrote to me asking if I'd like to come, but I declined the offer. I've been getting the feeling that they don't want have me around at Christmas. They're hurt by the way I wiped their memories and no matter how much I try to explain to them that I did it for both their benefits and mine, they will never quite be able to understand. They're Muggles, they don't know the sheer danger that Voldemort was."

"Well, at least we'll both be here together. What about Harry, Ginny and Ron? Will they be going to the Burrow?"

"No, not this year. George is a bit of a wreck and Mrs Weasley isn't really up to hosting a big Christmas party. We shall all be here. What about your friends?"

"Oh yes. Practically all of the first years are going home, their parents want to see them and such."

"Well, don't worry. You're like my little sister, you can spend Christmas with Harry, Ginny, Ron and I. I'll see if I can get permission for you to come into Hogsmeade whenever we go."

"I'm sure that McGonnagal will give you whatever you ask for. She thinks you're wonderful."

Hermione blushed. "Come on Hadria. Time for you to go to bed. You don't want to be around the corridors after curfew. Shall I walk you back to the Gryffindor tower? I have to do my rounds anyway."

"Yep. Let me just get my things."

As they walked back to Gryffindor tower, they chatted about Samantha Drawbury's new theory about defending the Cruciatus curse, which they both agreed was a bit too farfetched. As Hermione was just turning the corner she heard Hadria softly ask her a question.

"What about Draco? Where will he go for Christmas?"

Hermione thought about this for a minute. "I don't know." Then she turned and left. She went about her duties, patrolling the corridors and checking the bathrooms for late night wanderers and after that, she went to bed.

She woke at two o'clock in the morning and could not get back to sleep, no matter how much she tossed and turned. She heard a door opening somewhere and decided to go and investigate. She quickly dressed and walked out of her room and into the common room. The room was dark and deathly quiet. Hermione could just make out a figure lying on the sofa. Pulling her wand from her pocket, she murmured, "Lumos." The person on the sofa jumped upwards, eyes shielded from the light.

"Oh, Merlin, Hermione it's only you. You scared me." It was Draco, his platinum blonde hair was flopped over half of his face and his eyes were red and puffy.

"Sorry. Look, I need to talk to you."

"Sorry Granger. I'm too tired. Off to bed now. Goodnight." Draco walked over to his room and walked inside, shutting the door gently behind him. Hermione raised her eyebrows, she could tell that Draco was deliberately avoiding her, coming back every night during the earliest hours of the morning and waiting until she was off on her rounds before he emerged from his room. Hermione was usually glad, but now she pitied him and wanted to help him. She knew that he hated her for being a Mudblood but she didn't care, she was sure that something had changed in him after the war, by the way he spoke to her on the train to Hogwarts, with remorse and regret. Hermione knew that he would not be going home for Christmas, she knew that he hated the manor. Seeing as she was dressed and not feeling the least bit tired, she decided to do some reading, so, casting a disillusionment charm on herself, she went to the library.

"Who's there?" A sharp voice interrupted Hermione, as she was reading _Life and Gloom of Felicula Savistribu, _which was a book about the works of an amazing witch, who found out many things about the rich depths of magic, but went into depression and became anorexic, forgetting all of her work. She eventually died at the sorry age of 35, when she was found dead in her apartment in New York. This book was a special edition with not only all of her life story, but all of the things she had found out, not her personal writings of course, they were in other books. Hermione had read this book only twice before, but she loved it and found Felicula a fascinating person.

Hermione jerked her head upwards and found tall, bony Madam Pince staring at her with an amused expression on her face. Hermione looked down at herself and noticed that she was visible, she hadn't heard Madam Pince mutter the counter spell to the disillusionment charm. Sheepishly, she closed the book and stood up, bracing herself for a scolding.

"Miss Granger. I know that you are extremely fond of the library, but this is hardly head girl behaviour, sneaking out in the middle of the night. I should deduct house points, really, but I can hardly blame you. I too come to the library at such unearthly hours to read. You were not very discreet though Miss Granger, the book apparently flying and an unattended light on the table."

"Sorry. I'll try to be more… er….. subtle, next time." Hermione said, nervously. Madam Pince laughed. "Next time? My dear Hermione, there should not be a next time! You must stick to the library opening times! You are still a student."

"Yes Madam Pince." Hermione's cheeks were very pink, as she bowed her head to the floor.

"Was there any particular reason for why you were reading Felicula Savistribu's book?" Madam Pince asked, gesturing at the book in Hermione's hands.

"No, not really. I couldn't sleep and I hadn't read it in a while. I find Felicula's findings very interesting and her opinions on the Slobian Singing Potion dilemma extremely interesting. In fact, I find myself agreeing with her, which I know is utterly ridiculous because she is supposed to be completely politically incorrect, but she has such a way with words…." Hermione trailed off, as she noticed Madam Pince staring at her with a look of great puzzlement.

"I quite agree with you Miss Granger, have you read all of her books?" Hermione nodded and Madam Pince continued, "It's such a shame that she died so young. If she had not then we might have had a lot more knowledge about many kinds of Wizard magic and certainly a lot more on Elf magic. It will be fifty one years since her death in a week tomorrow."

"I wish she had lived longer, I'd have loved to have met her. She's such an inspiration to me, having started her discoveries at only fifteen. I bet half of the teachers here remember her, she came to Hogwarts after all."

"That she did, Miss Granger. I myself remember her. Many a time I had to chase her out of this library. Here until it closed almost every day, she was. I never caught her here in the small hours of the morning though." Madam Pince smiled at Hermione and then said, "You had better go back to bed and see if you can get an hour or so of sleep before school. Only a few days left before the Christmas holidays."

"Thank you Madam. Goodnight." Hermione said and made towards the door.

"Hermione, do not let me catch you here again in the middle of the night. Oh, and please return that book tomorrow." Madame Pince called to her. Hermione smiled and wandered slowly back to the Head Students' living quarters, completely forgetting to put a disillusionment charm on herself. Luckily, Filch had had a very tiring day, chasing after some elusive fourth years and their fanged Frisbees and dungbombs, so he was in bed asleep and Hermione made it safely back to her bedroom without being told off at all by any teachers. Unfortunately, Wilhelmina was not pleased at being woken up at such an hour.

"Hermione, you ought to be ashamed of yourself, waking up a poor old lady in the dead of night. I've a good mind to tell the headmistress….." Wilhelmina went on for a grand total of twenty minutes, whilst Hermione tried to block out the lecturing woman, by thinking about Felicula. "I'm ancient, don't you know, and I get little sleep with all of the house elves popping in and out every five minutes and then Draco turning up at midnight almost every night. Now don't tell me that you're going to make a habit of it, turning up at four in the morning. Why, I only have three or so hours before I have to go to Godric's portrait for-"

"Godric? You can't mean Godric Gryffindor!" Hermione was now interested.

"Well how many other Godrics have you heard of?" Wilhelmina looked patronisingly down at Hermione.

"There are portraits of the founders here, at Hogwarts? It doesn't say so in _Hogwarts: A History_!"

"Well, my dear, there are a great many things that it doesn't say in _Hogwarts: A History_. For instance the room of requirement."

"Why don't they show us these portraits?"

"Well, they can be a bit rude. If they do not think that one is fit to be in their house, they will say so. Once a Gryffindor first year accidentally wandered into the founders' corridor and they were told by Salazar that they were a filthy Mudblood, by Godric that they were a coward (and no wonder! They terrified the poor little girl) and she was told by Rowena that they were of the lowest intelligence. Helga was kind and said that the student was fit to be in any house and that they would make a wonderful Hufflepuff, but that Gryffindor was an excellent house too."

"Where is the founders' corridor?" Hermione asked.

"Just above this one. There is nothing up there but the four founders' portraits and a documentation of the first one thousand or so students of Hogwarts. Why?" She eyed Hermione suspiciously.

"Oh no reason. It's just nice to know, in case I ever need them."

"I doubt you will and anyway they're old! Just as old as me. They don't like visitors anyway. They don't mind Myrtle actually, she entertains them. With her stories of what goes on downstairs."

Hermione had to stop herself from snorting! Myrtle hardly knew herself what was going on "downstairs" she spent most of her time sitting in the toilet, crying and thinking about the day she died! It annoyed Hermione when Wilhelmina kept referring to herself as old because Wilhelmina was young, beautiful and wise. She looked as if she was about twenty years old and her eyes were warm, brown and young, they did not look in the least bit old. Hermione was beginning to tire of this conversation, she herself had only an hour and a half left to sleep and she wanted to go to bed for a bit.

"Mice Pies." She said clearly and Wilhelmina reluctantly swung open and let Hermione climb through.

Hermione woke up feeling excited. She'd had little sleep, but she was feeling energetic and she was burning to make a visit to the upstairs corridor, but she had to do her rounds, patrolling the corridors. She dressed and walked around her area, passing Draco only once. At one point she'd had to protect a little first year boy from Peeves and his bag of owl pellets, who was mortified and went away extremely grateful to Hermione. Hermione decided to tell Harry, Ginny and Ron all about her conversation with Wilhelmina to see if they'd like to go with her to meet the founders which would mean that they could go under Harry's invisibility cloak. So after completing her rounds, she went to the breakfast hall and told them, over some deliciously hot pancakes, about the founders' corridor.

Harry was particularly interested in meeting Gryffindor and immediately agreed to the use of his cloak, so did Ron and Ginny.

"But we won't all fit under the cloak, Ginny." He reasoned.

"Don't look at me as if I have to stay behind, Ron, if someone should stay behind it should be you! What would Lavender think? You going off, getting into trouble with us three hooligans!" Ginny retorted. At the mention of Lavender's name, Ron looked over at her and she gave him a smile, into which she poured out her heart. Ron gave a little wave back and rolled his eyes. Harry felt suddenly sorry for Lavender. He knew that her relationship with Ron wasn't going to last long or end well, but she really loved him.

"Look, I went to the library this morning before my rounds."

"Of course you did!" Harry grinned.

"And I found an extremely powerful expansion charm. I think that I can perform it on your invisibility cloak, to make it fit all of us. Ginny's right, it wouldn't be fair to leave her behind."

"Shall we go tonight? Meet at the end of Hermione's corridor and we can all go up there together?" Ron asked.

"Yep. At midnight. I will meet you there. Oh yes! There is something else I need to talk to you about."

"Fire away." Ginny grinned, whilst cutting up her third lemon and sugar pancake.

"Thank you." Hermione said, curtly. "Two things actually! Last night, as I told you, I got back late and Wilhelmina told me off, but I was back late because I was in the library. I was caught by Madam Pince, when I was reading _'Life and Gloom of Felicula Quinn-Scott' _she looked amused and didn't deduct any house points! Don't worry Harry. She just sent me to bed and told me that she didn't want to catch me there again at such a late hour."

"You're lucky she didn't bewitch all of your things to chase you out of there and give you a few bruises while they're at it!" Ron grinned at Hermione, who flinched. It seemed to Harry that there were rare occasions where Hermione would remember the hurt Ron had caused her and the pain hadn't quite gone, and she would flinch once in a while, or sometimes Harry could just see that look of regret deep in Hermione's minstrel brown eyes.

"What was the second thing?" Harry asked, helping himself to a pear, tentatively.

"Ah yes. It was about Hadria. She's not going home for Christmas, but all of her little friends are. She's like a little sister to me, Harry, would it be okay if she hung around with us during the Christmas break? You know, come to Hogsmeade with us; sit with us for Christmas dinner; decorate the Gryffindor common room with us. Things like that!"

"That's fine with me." Ron declared immediately. He seemed to have noticed Hermione's little flinch and was trying to make it up to her.

"Same." Said Ginny, between bites of her pancake.

"Yeah. The only problem is Hogsmeade, we'll want to go there quite a lot, I'd imagine, but Hadria isn't allowed! First and second years are not allowed into Hogsmeade at all, you'd have to ask McGonagall." As Harry said this, he put his arm on Ginny's shoulder and Ginny started mindlessly stroking his hand.

"Yes, I know, and she would have to get permission from Mr and Mrs Quinn-Scott, both of whom are going skiing in a couple of days." Hermione told them.

"You'd better get a move on then. Go after double potions." Ron advised.

As they were leaving the great hall and making their way to potions, they bumped into Hadria who grinned at Hermione and said, "Hey 'Mione! See you later." Then she scurried away with her best friend, Opal and Hermione felt a sharp pang of envy. She wished that she had a best friend. She had always had Harry and Ron, but they were much closer to eachother than they were to her and often forgot to tell her things. Ginny sometimes acted like a best friend, but this was the first time that they had actually spent time together at school and that was because she was dating Harry. Hermione quickly cheered up when she felt herself being pushed along the corridor, by a mob of seventh years, and remembered that she had double potions. Hermione loved potions because she found it challenging and extremely fun. She missed the more difficult tasks set by Snape, but she enjoyed Professor Greene's lessons, she was not as harsh as Snape was and she was gentle and clever, although sometimes slightly patronising.

"Good morning. I thank you all for coming promptly to this lesson. Today we are going to be brewing the Slobian Singing Potion, you will find this in your text books on page 144. This potion is extremely difficult and can be very nasty if you drink it. The potion reaches into the depths of your soul and pulls out your worst fears, your most horrible nightmares and your deepest regrets; the terrible things you have done. Then it plays them before your eyes and before the eyes of any human or animal within a five metre radius. This potion can be worse than the Cruciatus curse, as a method of torture, but it can also be used as a substitute for veritaserum and it can also make one see their mistakes and in the case of death eaters, make them "change their ways". Therefore there is a dilemma as to whether or not it should be made legal for uses in court. Has anybody read Felicula Savistribu's opinions on the matter?" Professor Greene looked around the room expectantly. Only Hermione raised her hand.

"Five points for Gryffindor for extra research. By Monday, I would like four inches on the pros and cons of using the Slobian Singing Potion in court. Now, please find yourself a partner, this lesson we will be working in pairs, because it's such a difficult potion."

Hermione looked at Harry, but he had already paired himself with Ron. Hermione sighed and looked around the room, to see if there were any other people without partners, but everyone seemed to already have a partner. The only other person in the whole classroom without a partner was Draco. Hermione looked at him and they made eye contact. She raised her eyebrows at him, as if asking him the question, "Partners?" He nodded and went over to the cupboard and started to pick out the ingredients that they would need, whilst Hermione started preparing the desk. Because both of them were very good at potions, they worked well together and little communication was needed. By the end of the lesson, they were the only pair who had actually managed to brew the potion correctly and Professor Greene was very pleased with their work. She rewarded them both with a stars-in-your-eyes lemon fizzbang lollipop (a new type of lollipop from Honeydukes which made stars appear wherever you walked for the best part of ten minutes and then after that a small, lemony pop exploded in your mouth.) As they were clearing up, Neville was walking past their table and, being Neville, he knocked everything off it. The cauldron smashed to the floor and luckily, the contents had previously been emptied. Professor Green glided over to them and, with a quick flick of her wand, fixed the broken cauldron. Next, she waved her wand over the two bags, and Hermione and Draco's books flew into their separate bags.

"Thank you Professor." Hermione chirped, slinging her bag on her shoulder.

"Thank you." Draco said, pulling on his bag.

"You are most welcome. Neville, please try to be more careful." Professor Greene smiled.

It was nine o'clock and Hermione was in the middle of giving Hadria her lesson, they had decided to meet in her room tonight, as opposed to the transfiguration classroom, as they were just doing some basic charms. Ginny was sitting at the end of Hermione's bed, mindlessly fiddling with Hermione's bag and listening to the gentle hum of Hermione's voice as she coached Hadria on how to turn a toad into a teapot. Ginny opened the bag, pointlessly, and pulled out a gorgeous dark red diary.

"Sorry to interrupt, but Hermione, this book is gorgeous! Where did you get it? Is it muggle?"

"Pardon?" Hermione looked confused, as Ginny held up the book. "That's not mine. Hadria, is it yours?"

"No. It's not mine."

"See if it has a name in it." Hermione suggested to Ginny, who had already opened the book.

"No, it has no name, but it has quite a lot of lovely handwriting in it, filling up at least a quarter of the book. I think it's a diary." Ginny was now starting to read the first page.

"Gin! You can't read someone's diary!" Hermione protested, as Ginny scanned the pages eagerly with her eyes.

"Why not? We need to find out who it belongs to. Listen, "I saw her in Potions today and oh Merlin I lost control again. Her hair was flowing in that wonderfully natural way that it does and she was wearing that emerald studded silver hair clip, which I gave her for her birthday. She's so smart that I still can't believe that she hasn't figured out that I gave it to her. In a way I'm glad, because Merlin knows what she'd say if she knew. She'd probably hex me into oblivion and Merlin knows I don't need that right now. I was staring at her dainty, slender, clever fingers as she ran her index finger up and down the list of ingredients in her potions book, when she stopped and looked at me with her beautiful brown eyes, as if she had felt my gaze. I snapped at her, "Why are you looking at me?" and, oh Merlin, I called her a Mudblood. I feel awful, after the war, I mean I made a pledge to myself to drop my prejudices and I have, in fact I haven't really ever been prejudice. It's just something that my parents always expected of me, I never believed any of the things that I said to her, because, I've always loved her, ever since my first year at Hogwarts, I'm just terrible at showing it. Oh Merlin she looked so hurt, as she turned back to her potions book. I'd bet my wand that she thinks I'm nothing more than a blast ended skrewt. I can't bare this anymore. I think I love her. Oh bloody hell, Blaise is coming. He can't see this. Goodnight."" Ginny stopped reading and there was a deathly silence lingering in the air.

Draco had written that diary entry on the night when Blaise had found him. Blaise had found Draco sitting in an empty classroom in what he had assumed to be a homework planner. Draco had looked up at Blaise, scribbled a few things and then shut the book and put it in his bag.

"I'm sorry, Draco, but I am not going to be shunned by the whole school. It's too late for you, every Slytherin knows that you're a traitor to the Dark Lord and all of the others think that you're a death eater, but the Slytherins won't reject me. I stayed faithful to Voldemort and although I may be shunned by the rest of the wizarding world, I will always have a place with the rest of the Slytherin's." He had then left the classroom, and since then he had not spoken a word to Draco.

"Well, I think we all know to whom this diary belongs." Hermione said, breaking the silence.

"Yes. Draco Malfoy." Ginny replied.

"How do you know?" Hadria asked.

"Oh, the mention of Blaise, the Mudblood calling. You know, Hadria, after a while you start to get to know people and the things they say. This whole book sounds as though it was written by a very sad, lonely, confused person and that is exactly what Draco is like at the moment." Hermione replied.

"Yes, and we also know the person that he's in love with." Ginny grinned at Hermione, knowingly.

"No." Hermione gasped. She didn't think it to be possible, but she fitted the description perfectly. The mention that he'd called her a Mudblood in potions, which had happened a month or so ago. Hermione reached up to her hair and delicately removed the emerald studded silver hairclip. Hadria looked in shock at her.

"Draco loves you?" She half asked, half stated in a soft, gentle voice.

A million thoughts rushed frantically through Hermione's head, 'Did he love her?' 'Why hadn't she helped him over the past few months?' 'What could she do?' 'What should she do?' 'What would her mother do?' Ginny looked at her and saw the panic behind her friend's eyes. She sent Hadria away and Hadria quickly left, giving Hermione a quick hug before she did. When Hadria had gone, Ginny walked over to the bed and sat down. Hermione looked at her and said hoarsely,

"What should I do?"


	4. Dumbledore?

Chapter Four

**AN: I hope that you have all had a wonderful Christmas! Thank you to all of you who have read the story so far, may you all have a wonderful new year. Please review and let me know if you like it or think that some improvements can be made to it. **

**Thank You and Merry Christmas x**

* * *

"What you do about the whole relationship thing (whether you choose to go out with him, or not go out with him) is completely up to you. However, I think that you definitely need to talk to him and consider helping him. He's clearly in a bad way and I think that he'd appreciate it if you became his friend. Also you need to figure out whether you're going to tell him that you know what's in the diary or not. By the way, do you know how you came to get this?" Ginny asked Hermione.

"Yes, I think it happened when Neville knocked over all of our things off the desk, in potions. Greene made all of our things go into our bags (with a simple housework spell) and this diary must have accidentally packed itself into my bag. I think that I should tell him that I know what's in the diary and I should thank him for this." She held up the beautiful hair pin. When she had received it, she had not really thought about who had sent it to her, she had thought that the person would reveal themselves to her and then after a while she had forgotten about the mysterious person who had given her the gift. "I want to let him know that I care about him, because he needs a friend right now and seeing this just tears me up. I thought that I had it bad when Ron left me, but Draco has no one. Let me have a look through this book Ginny and then I will decide what to do."

"You are forgetting your head girl duties." Ginny reminded her.

"Oh, not to worry, no one ever checks up on me. They don't care whether I patrol the corridors or not. I'll go later."

"Shall I stay with you tonight? I could camp out on your floor." Ginny suggested.

"Yes, alright." Hermione sat down gracefully on her bed and reopened the book.

Three hours later, Hermione and Ginny's eyes were filled with salty tears, threatening to overspill and run down their faces. They had read the whole book, which had turned out to be so very sad that Hermione wanted nothing more than to reach out and touch Draco. She wanted to take all of the darkness and unhappiness out of his life and cast it away, replacing it with nothing but happiness and light. She found herself wanting to seek him out and talk to him. She wanted to show him that she understood him, to make him see that she cared. She didn't understand why he loved her. She had never been nice, or even shown the slightest bit of respect towards him. In fact she had punched him in the face in their third year, which made her wonder even more why he had feelings for her. Ginny had asked her to confirm various different things in parts of the book.

"Did you get that hairclip on your birthday?" "Has Malfoy spoken to you much recently?"

Hermione was at a loss. After they had finished the book, Ginny and Hermione had both felt lumps in the back of their throats and their eyes were stinging with tears, as if they were watching an incredibly sad movie and were fighting back the tears, but it was worse, because this wasn't a movie. This was real.

Hermione let a fat tear fall down her face and as she wiped it away, she noticed that Ginny's cheeks also had a couple of sticky, salty streaks down them.

"I never knew that Malfoy was so, so very, human." Ginny said at last, her voice snaking its way through the thick silence.

"No." Hermione agreed, but as soon as she had spoken, she regretted her words. "Actually, over the course of this term, he has been rather fragile and not so above it all. Actually, that is the understatement of the millennium! He has been a wreck. I have never seen someone so upset, so hurt, so unreachable, so…." Hermione trailed off and met Ginny's fiery brown eyes.

"Hermione?" Ginny said, her mouth agape. "Have you tried to "reach him"? As you put it." Ginny asked.

"Yes." Hermione's words were barely more than a whisper. "At the start of term, I thought that…and then he said…..but I wanted to and then the other….Mudblood…." Hermione was barely able to speak, she felt like she needed to throw up.

"When was the last time you spoke?" Ginny asked.

"Last night, right before-" Hermione stopped, as if she had remembered something, suddenly. "Ginny! We were supposed to meet Harry and Ron tonight!"

"Oh dear Merlin! You're right. What time is it?"

"It's only eleven." Hermione said, looking down at her watch. "Gosh, the boys will be wondering where you are!"

"Oh yes, I hadn't thought of that, I was so caught up in this whole Draco business." She glared at Hermione, who chuckled.

"Come to think of it, we haven't seen him. Have you heard him come in?" Hermione thought out loud.

"Hermione! He must be frantic! Searching for this book. I would be. This contains all of his deepest secrets, about his father beating him, his love for you," Ginny received a whack on the arm from Hermione, by said book, "it contains his feelings about being an outcast. Everything. Hermione, he must be pulling his hair out over this."

Hermione looked panic stricken. "Do you think that we ought to tell Harry and Ron?"

"Not Ron. He would never, ever understand. This book contains somebody's actual feelings, Hermione, after what he did to you, do you really think that he is capable of caring for somebody's feelings?" At Ginny's words, Hermione looked at the floor. Gathering herself, she said,

"Well then, what about Harry?" Hermione asked.

"I don't know. I really don't know what to say. Hermione, I think that you should work out what you want to do, before you tell anyone." Ginny advised, shooting her friend the fifth sympathetic look of the night.

"I think that I am going to talk to Draco." Hermione said. "Yes, that's what I will do. I will give him back the book and help him in any way he needs, either for a friend or just for an agony aunt, if you will." She said more to herself than to Ginny.

"An agony aunt? Hermione what are you on about?"

"An agony aunt is a term initially used for a person to whom one writes letters to in an agony column and they reply, but it is now more commonly used for a person who listens to peoples troubles and tries to help them." Hermione explained the Muggle term to Ginny.

"I see, so you and Draco will write letters to eachother?"

"No. We can just talk in person, as opposed to owling eachother."

"Ah, okay. When will you tell Draco?"

"I don't know, Gin-" Hermione was cut off by the sound of an exasperated shout nearby. "What was that?" She looked at Ginny.

"Well, considering that you share living quarters with a certain young Malfoy, by the power of deduction, I assume that it is in fact, Draco Malfoy." Ginny said, with an air of false wisdom.

"Damn. Should I go and talk to him?"

"Yes. You should. Thinking about it, it is best to make sure he isn't without this book for too long. He might die of panic."

"Wilhelmina! I know I'm late back, but I'm late every day and you've never been bothered before!" The voice of Draco Malfoy wafted through the common room and into Hermione's bedroom. Hermione, still holding the red leather bound book, got to her feet and left the room, leaving behind an amused looking Ginny.

The portrait finally swung open and Draco Malfoy climbed through, into the warm, cosy and safe living quarters. Standing in the middle of the common room, Hermione suddenly regretted her decision to give the book to him. She went bright red, as the tall, blonde boy stared at the book she was clutching. She was joined in her blushing bash by Draco, who suddenly went very limp and almost fell to the floor. His legs failing him, he grabbed onto the arm of the sofa, to support himself. Hermione ran to him and hauled him up, helping him to sit down on the sofa. Sitting down next to the paler-than before Slytherin, she opened her mouth to speak.

"I found this in my bag." She handed him the book. "I guess that it must have gone into my bag instead of yours, when they all fell off the desk and Greene put them back in our bags." Hermione explained. Draco seemed to find his voice, which, for a moment, he had feared was vanished, because of the horrible choking feeling inside his throat.

"How did you know it was m-mine?" He asked, knowing full well that he hadn't written his name anywhere inside it. "Did you read it?" He asked, realisation dawning upon his sickened face, as he saw Hermione's small, shamed nod. He looked at the book on his lap with sorrow.

"I'm sorry." Hermione said, simply, to him. "I'm sorry." Draco was about to open his mouth, to say that it wasn't her fault and that she had nothing to apologise for, when, for no reason plain to Hermione or Draco, Hermione grasped Draco's pale hand and looked at him in the eyes. "Thank you for the hairpin." Hermione smiled.

A shade of pink grazed Draco's cheeks and he realised that she knew. She knew everything. Draco looked into Hermione's big, chocolate brown eyes and his own grey ones softened. He knew what her message was. She was telling him that she was there for him and that she wanted to help him. Draco needed help and he knew it. He had needed help right from the word go, which was why he had written the diary in the first place. The book had been his only friend, but now Hermione Granger, the only person (aside from his mother) whom he really loved, was offering her friendship to him.

"Draco, talk to me." Hermione said. Draco had not spoken in several minutes and his eyes had become watery. He looked almost zombielike and Hermione was slightly worried. Draco's head was swimming with thoughts and he had zoned out completely. His hand was still clasping Hermione's and, awakening himself from his thoughts, he said,

"Sorry."

Hermione looked puzzled at this. She had no idea what Draco was apologising for. "Er, for what?" She asked.

"For everything." Draco said, looking down at the book on his lap, his face still pink. "I never-"

"I know." Hermione cut him off. "I read the whole book."

"So you know? That you're…." Draco trailed off. He didn't know how to finish that sentence. What?

What was she?

"Yes and Draco, I do care about you. We could have been friends at the beginning of the year, I tried to make amends with you, but you pushed me away. Why?" She said. Draco felt his ears burning. He looked down at their hands and asked himself the question Hermione had just asked him. He came up with no answer and was about to confess this to her, when he was interrupted by a certain female Weasley.

"Hermione, I don't mean to be a pest, but we have to go and meet Ron and Harry." Ginny emerged from Hermione's room. Hermione and Draco both looked up at her, puzzled. Hermione had forgotten about Ginny and Draco was startled to see somebody else in the head's common room.

"Oh yes." Hermione said, recovering from her state of shock. "Want to come?" She asked Draco.

"You're uh leaving the quarters? Um I don't know if that's wise. I've already irritated Wilhelmina tonight. I doubt that she'll let you back in, if you go out. Where were you planning on going?" Draco asked. Hermione let go of Draco's hand and stood up.

"We are going to see the founders. Well strictly speaking the portraits of the founders, but it's almost the same." Hermione told him.

"Where are they? In Hogwarts?" Draco asked, slightly stunned.

"Yes, yes, upstairs!" Ginny answered, agitatedly. "Come on, though, if you're coming. We'll be late and Harry will already be annoyed with me, for not being in the Gryffindor Tower."

"Okay. Disillusionment charms on three, two, and one!" Hermione smiled, before she vanished. Leaving Draco and Ginny wondering what on earth had happened. They hadn't even seen her pull out her wand.

"Hurry up, you two!" Came Hermione's authoritative voice from the seemingly empty space in the middle of the room. Ginny drew her wand, Draco followed suit and, soon, the common room looked completely free of human life.

"Okay let's go." Ginny said.

"Draco." Came Hermione's voice. "Don't say a word until we get to Harry. We will pretend that you aren't here. We don't want Wilhelmina knowing. She might go to McGonagall if you are out twice in one night."

"Alright." Draco said. He was a bit bemused by the sudden turn of events. He hadn't really got a clue as to what was going on and where they were going. He followed the sound of Hermione's steady breathing, still clutching his book, and as they climbed out of the portrait hole, he heard Wilhelmina say, "Hermione, is that you? What are you doing this time?"

"Yes. It is me. I need a book." Hermione called.

"Hurry back then. I really don't want to be up too late tonight." Wilhelmina said, sternly.

The three turned the corner and Ginny, who was at the front, bumped straight into an invisible Harry.

"Hermione, is that you?" He whispered.

"No. It's Ginny, but Hermione is here too. And Draco." Ginny whispered back.

"Draco Malfoy?" Harry said, startled.

"How many other Draco's do you know?" Came Hermione's smart no-nonsense voice.

"What is he doing here?" Harry asked. "What are you doing here, Ginny? I couldn't find you. Ron is still sleeping. He muttered something about sleep being too precious." If Harry had been visible the three other invisible school children would have seen him smirking. It was typical of Ron, food and sleep were his main priorities.

"It's a long story." Muttered Ginny. "Shall we all use the cloak? It's more fool proof."

"Yeah. Harry give it here, I'll do the spell." Hermione said, lifting the disillusionment charm and holding out her wand free hand. Harry pulled of his cloak and handed the shimmering article to the said girl. Hermione raised her wand, and with a flick elegant enough to rival that of Greene's, she said "Magnus Ferocitus Tempus." She said, with that authoritative tone she used during spells, which Draco loved. Unfortunately for Draco, he didn't have much time for admiring Hermione's tone of voice, because not long after Hermione had uttered the words, the whole world seemed to explode around them. Jets of silver and black light shot past them, the last thing Draco heard before the world blacked out was Hermione's scream. The scream rang out above Harry's short, sharp shout and Ginny's grunt of pain, as the disillusionment charm was lifted painfully.

Hermione opened her eyes and groaned. She could feel a nightmare slipping slowly away and out of her memory. She looked to her left and saw a sleeping Draco. On her right was Ginny, who was sitting up and rubbing her forehead and next to Ginny's feet was Harry. Harry was, like Draco, still sleeping, his hair was looking even more dishevelled than normal.

"Harry, my love, wake up." Ginny shook him.

"Urgh, Gin, save it 'till you're married." Hermione grinned at her red-headed friend. Harry woke up and yelped. Then, grinning, he pulled his invisibility cloak off Hermione's legs. Hermione laughed. She had not noticed that her legs were not there. Hermione wondered what time it was. She looked down at Draco and decided to wake him.

"Draco. Draco, wake up." She shook him gently. Draco stirred and rubbed his eyes.

"What happened?" He asked looking up at Hermione, inquisitively.

"Erm, good question. The answer is…. I have no idea." Hermione smiled.

"Woah! Hermione Granger, the brightest witch of her age, golden girl of the war, does not know the answer." Harry ducked as Hermione tried to whack him over the head.

"You tried to make the cloak bigger." Ginny recalled.

"Then there was lots of silver and black." Draco remembered.

"Yes. Hermione screamed, very loudly, I'm surprised we didn't all go deaf." Harry rubbed his ears whilst he flashed his friend another wicked grin and dodged another whack from Hermione.

"Well, I must have done the spell wrong." Hermione sighed. "Shall we go and have a look at exactly what I did wrong? I have the book in my room." The three others agreed with her and they went back towards Draco and Hermione's quarters, Harry shoving his cloak in his pocket.

"At least it's the Christmas holidays!" Ginny said. "Otherwise we'd be late for class, it's already twelve O'Clock."

"How do you know?" Harry asked.

"Simple time telling spell. Fred taught me, last year." She sighed, not adding the words 'before he died.'

"Sorry, you look like students? Are you lost?" Wilhelmina looked suspiciously at them.

"Mice Pies." Hermione said, dully.

"Excuse me?" Wilhelmina looked.

"Mice Pies!" Hermione said, loudly.

"I heard the first time." Wilhelmina looked at Hermione with annoyance.

"Well then let us in!" Draco looked just as annoyed.

"Sorry. Head students and teachers only and that isn't the password. Who are you?"

"The head boy and girl!" Hermione and Draco looked frustrated.

"I think not. The head boy and girl of this year are Agatha Quinn-Scott and Marius Savistribu."

"Right, I'm going to see Professor McGonagall." Draco growled. The four students departed and made their way towards the Headmistress' office.

"Headmistress." Hermione shouted. "Headmistress!" The gargoyle stepped aside and out stepped Dumbledore. Harry, Hermione, Ginny and Draco almost doubled over.

"I was a headmaster, last time I checked." Grinned Dumbledore, his blue eyes twinkling.

"Yes, sorry, Headmaster. Er, could you tell me the year?" Hermione said, her face as pale as Draco's, but not quite as sickly as Harry's.

"Why of course, it's 1971. May I ask what you four are doing here a week before term begins, and exactly who you are?" He gestured into his office and the four willingly followed, each of them looking bewildered.

Slowly and carefully, they explained what had happened, glossing over the part where they left their beds after curfew. They told Dumbledore their names, the year which they had left behind (1998) and they told him the spell which had been used.

"Why that particular spell, Miss Granger?" Dumbledore asked.

"I was trying to expand something, make it bigger," Hermione explained, "but I must have done something wrong. Why? Have you heard of it before?"

"No. I'm afraid not. I shall have to research it. For now, it seems that you are stuck in the past, until we can find you a way back." Dumbledore told them. "I see that three of you are Gryffindors and one of you is a Slytherin. Well, I think that it would be best if you all stuck together. So, for now….." He flicked his wand and Draco's badge, tie and everywhere with the Slytherin colours or crest on it changed from green, silver and snakes, to red, gold and lions. Draco laughed and Ginny and Hermione smiled at him. They had read his book. They knew that he'd always wanted to be a Gryffindor. With another flick of his wand, both Harry and Ginny received Head Boy and Head Girl badges.

"That is so that you may all stay in the Head Students quarters."

"But, Professor, I am only a sixth year." Ginny said.

"These things can be overlooked. Don't tell the other students that you are a year younger than the other's though. I think that it is better that you all stick together. Hopefully, we can find a counter-spell quickly and you can all go back to 1998. Now, while you are here, it is best if you do not meddle, or tell anyone of any future events. You must not tell them your surnames, in case of relatives such as parents, so choose some muggle ones. Are any of you muggleborns?" Hermione nodded, but the others shook their heads. "You may use your surname then. We need a cover story for your being here. How about you all being from the Beauxbatons academy?" Dumbledore suggested.

"We can't speak French, though." Ginny put in.

"No. That's a good point, but there are charms that I know of." Dumbledore raised his wand, yet again, and after pointing it at each one of them.

"Draco, please say something in French." Dumbledore looked at the pale blonde.

"Je voudrais revenir à 1998." Draco said.

"Moi aussi." Hermione smiled.

"Imitation!" Ginny chimed in.

"Vous sont tous de langue française!" Laughed Harry, but when he heard the words escape his lips, he clamped his hand to his mouth.

"You will have to learn to control it, and mind you don't say anything to anyone of this charm. It is frowned upon to use it." Dumbledore said sternly.

"Oui monsieur." Harry said. "I mean, yes sir."

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled as Hermione and Ginny suppressed giant snorts.

"Let us go to the Head's living quarters now. We will expand the rooms."

The four newly made head students followed their old headmaster up to Wilhelmina again.

"Ah, Wilhelmina. These are four new head students of Hogwarts. They will be staying here as well as Marius and Agatha." Dumbledore told the dark haired witch.

"Hello again." Wilhelmina beamed down at the four Gryffindors. "Password?"

"Ah, yes. Let me see." Dumbledore fumbled about in his pockets and pulled out a slip of paper. "Felis Felixus." He read. The portrait swung open and they all climbed through into a large, pink room.

"Ah, the elves redecorated. They've done an excellent job, I must say." Dumbledore said, merrily. Hermione snickered as she saw the looks on Harry and Draco's faces. Harry looked like he wanted to throw up and Draco, well the look on Draco's face could only be described as pure mortification. Hermione caught Ginny's eye and nodded in the direction of the two boys. Ginny looked at them and couldn't help letting out a ginormous snort, which triggered all three males to turn and stare at her, which, in turn, caused Hermione herself to let out a snort. Within seconds, both Ginny and Hermione were laughing like maniacs and Dumbledore looked extremely amused, whereas Harry and Draco were still coming to terms with the room, which was so pink, that even Umbridge would think it a bit over the top.

"Well, I will get started in the bedrooms. You four can chit-chat among yourselves." Dumbledore told them, as he walked towards a pink marble staircase, stopping only to pick up a dark pink toffee from a pale pink coffee table.

"So, what do you think, Harry?" Ginny giggled.

"Oh. I love it. I was thinking of doing Grimmauld Place up exactly like this." Harry said sarcastically. Hermione laughed, so did Ginny. Hermione looked at Draco and laughed even harder. Draco looked like all words had been lost to him. All he could see was pink. Pink cushions, pink walls, pink fairy lights, pink carpet, pink stairs, pink shelves, pink everything. Draco thought about how his father would react if he knew where Draco was and it wasn't a pretty thought. Probably a few more bruises for Draco and few nasty cuts and gauges on Draco's body. Draco's thoughts were rudely interrupted by a cackling Hermione, who put her hand on Draco's shoulder and started trying to string some words together.

"Pahahahaha! Your…PAHAHAHA…..Face…..PAHAHAHAHAHA…..the pink!" Hermione managed to say, before her hand slipped from Draco's shoulder and she joined Ginny, who had crumpled to the floor in laughter. Draco came to his senses and looked at Harry, who grinned at him and said, "Not quite like the Slytherin dorms, eh?"

"No, but I'm sure the Gryffindor ones are the spitting image." Draco retorted.

Hermione slowly calmed down, and stood back up, dragging Ginny with her.

"Draco. Draco." She said, placing each her left hand on Draco's left shoulder and her right on his left. "You're too funny." She pulled away her right hand and wiped her eye, leaving her left hand on Draco's shoulder. Draco felt funny butterflies in his stomach and he felt a lovely warm tickly feeling spread around his body, starting from the place where Hermione's palm rested upon his shoulder. Without thinking, Draco put his hand on top of hers and stroked it. Hermione was at first slightly shocked, but the shock quickly started to melt melted away because of the warm feeling spreading through her. She wasn't thinking properly, Ginny's laughter was hazy and Harry's merry babbling about the pink blended into her head, making no sense to her muddled brain. Before she knew it, Hermione was leaning closer towards Draco's face and her eyes were closed. She couldn't remember much of her first kiss with Draco. All she remembered was feeling happy and confused. She remembered the sudden silence surrounding them and the warmth of Draco's breath against her before their lips met. She remembered Draco's arms around her waist, as she clung to his shoulders and kissed him harder. She did not remember her thoughts as she leaned in for the kiss. She didn't remember anything she thought about during the kiss, she only remembered impulse and warmth.

As the two pulled away, Hermione and Draco both became aware of their senses. They noticed Harry's wand firmly fixed on Draco.

"Right, that's it. All of you explain. What do you know that I don't? Why did Draco come? Explain. What is going on?" Harry said, to the three others.

"I've expanded the rooms. I think that they'll do fine. Lunch is in half an hour, I shall see you there. There will not be any students, though, only us teachers. I must try not to ruin my appetite on these delicious toffees." Dumbledore looked up from the bowl of pink toffees and saw Harry's wand pointed at Draco's head, Ginny staring at him, her mouth agape and Draco and Hermione looking at him with confusion.

"Oh dear, Harry. I am sure that you can resolve small disagreements, such as these, without use of magic." He looked knowingly at him, his blue eyes twinkling. He popped a pink toffee into his mouth and walked towards the portrait hole. "I shall see you all at dinner."

Harry put his wand away, but still looked menacingly at Draco and Hermione.

"How long?" He asked, "Has this been going on?"

"Harry." Ginny said. "It's just started. They are probably just as shocked as you are. Draco, you should show him the book."

Draco and Hermione gaped at her.

"The book?" Harry asked, his face showed him to be completely confused.

"The book." Draco echoed, his face looked suddenly very worried. "It must be still back on the floor in the middle of the corridor, in 1998." Hermione's eyes widened in shock.

"What book?" Harry demanded.

"Harry, calm down! I will explain everything to you. Let's go in to that room." Ginny pointed to one of the bedrooms. Harry took her extended hand and followed her into the bedroom on the right. The room was covered in pink and yellow flowers. Harry raised his eyebrows, but said nothing. They sat down on one of the three big, yellow beds. Ginny started to explain, calmly.

"There is a book, Draco's diary, which Hermione found in her bag, after the potions incident…" Ginny explained what exactly was in the book and summed up everything that she knew. Harry took a good five minutes to take it all in. He felt bad for always hating Malfoy, now that he realised that Draco had never wanted to do any of the terrible things that he had been made to do. Harry knew that Draco's childhood had been worse than his own, but yet Harry was still not comforted. He didn't think that he could ever trust Draco Malfoy.

"Does Hermione love Draco?" Harry asked. "Well, Harry, I don't know. She _was_ the one who initiated the kiss."

Meanwhile in the very pink common room…

"Draco. Are we, what I mean is, do you….." Hermione didn't finish her sentence. She was lost. She was confused. She knew how _he_ felt, but she didn't know how _she_ felt. She stared into his grey eyes and found the answer to all of her questions. She realised that she had made her choice when she had stepped out of her bedroom with the journal, which was now lying on the corridor floor in 1998. She smiled softly at him and reached out once more for his hand. Draco's hand tingled and he held Hermione's tightly, as if he were afraid that it might slip away.

"Hermione, may we have a word?" Ginny emerged from the florally decorated bedroom. Hermione nodded and let go of Draco's hand.

"Hermione, are you going to date him? What about Ron? Hermione, do you love him?" Harry's several hundred questions were pelted at Hermione, at a speed of about a million miles per hour, the second she walked into the room.

"Yes, I think so, and Ron isn't here." She answered the first three questions all at once, but had not been able to distinguish the other five hundred questions, due to the sheer amount of them and the speed at which they had been asked.

"Well, we shouldn't be here for long! Hermione, Dumbledore will sort it out! Surely, we'll be home by Christmas."

"Harry, Christmas is still about four months away, and time travel magic is difficult to perform-I only did it by accident-, it's rare and extremely difficult to reverse." Hermione told him, glancing around the flowery room, neither Harry nor Hermione noticed a certain female Weasley sneak away.

"Draco." Ginny whispered. Draco spun around and looked at the smiling ginger girl. "She loves you."

"What?" Draco had heard what Ginny had said, but he did not believe his ears.

"You heard." Ginny grinned. "She loves you, you love her and you deserve eachother. But, if you hurt her, be warned, she has Harry, me and all of her friends on her back and I know that you've already experienced my famous Bat Bogey Hex," Ginny smirked, but Draco looked uneasy. "So I'm sure that you don't want any second helpings, plus all of the hell that the rest of them can give you."

"I don't deserve her." Draco said, shaking his head. "I can never deserve her."

"Stop your moaning." Ginny said. "Now let's listen to what they're saying." Ginny signalled to Draco to follow her up the stairs and they pressed their ears to the closed door.

"But Malfoy, Hermione. I know that he's a good guy and all of that, but he's still Malfoy."

"Draco, Harry, Draco. We call our friends by their first names."

"Hermione, we hardly know him. You can't love him."

"I know, but Harry, he's different from how we. He's braver than all of us put together. You don't know what he has been through."

"I do! Ginny told me everything, but I'm only looking out for you, he might hurt you, Hermione and you're my best friend. It almost killed me, seeing Ron hurt you so badly." Harry said.

"Harry, Draco won't hurt me like that. I've seen his thoughts. He's not….. Ron." It pained her to say something so horrible about one of her best friends, but it was the truth.

"I know. He's Draco Malfoy, the bully who called you a Mudblood for seven years. The boy who stood by while you were tortured in his home."

Draco felt like he wanted to shrivel up into a ball and die. Draco knew that Harry was right. He knew that he wasn't worth Hermione's time. Ginny patted his shoulder and whispered,

"Don't worry, we all heard the story, you saved Harry's life. He'll realise that in a minute, either that or Hermione will tell him."

"Harry, he's also the boy who saved your life and, in turn, the entire world."

"Fair point, Hermione. Are you sure about this, though?"

"Yes. He needs someone and, quite frankly, so do I."

"Alright then, Hermione." Harry said standing up and walking to his friend, in order to give her a hug. "I trust your judgment, it's usually right."

"Thanks, Harry." They walked over to the door and Harry pushed it open, sending Ginny and Draco flying.

"Excuse me!" Hermione laughed. "Were you two eavesdropping?"

"No!" Ginny said, pushing her hair out of her face, revealing an all-too-innocent smile.

"We should go down to lunch Harry." Ginny said. "You two can join us in a bit." Harry and Ginny left the pink common room and headed down to dinner, leaving Draco and Hermione standing on the pink marble landing.

"I am so glad that _our_ head's quarters are nothing like this!" Draco said.

"Yes, it's very pink." Hermione smiled. "Listen, Draco, I don't know how much of that you heard, but I care about you. A lot." She stepped closer to him, she was so close that Draco could feel the warmth of her breath on his face.

"I know. Hermione, the thing is, I love you. Will you, um, be my girlfriend?" He said, nervously.

"Yes." Hermione breathed. Something had caught her attention. A familiar smell. "May I smell your hair?" She asked, startling Draco.

"Er, yes." He said. She pulled his head down so that his hair was level with hers and she inhaled. She smiled, happily. It was a smell that she knew and a smell that she loved. She had finally found the source of the third scent in the Amortentia.


End file.
